SERVICIOS

Principal Novara employed two coaches to primarily oversee instruction across the grade levels. Meadows had three full time49, specialist positions: two half time coaches, a full time resource teacher, and two half time interventionists. On occasion, the principal pulled in specialists other than the coaches to observe teachers and provide professional development to teachers.

Principal Novara believed that changing classroom instruction was a key charge of the coaches. She explained,

Serena: You were saying you were working on changing classroom instruction – to meet the needs of all your students. So how does one actually change classroom instruction?

49 _{Though there are three full time specialist positions, they were occupied by four different}

Novara: Well the focus of a coach is to really help with that. I would say, I mean there is a ton of stuff we could talk about, but here‘s what I think is the biggest shift for teachers. We‘ve been doing DRA reading scores and running records. You can have to collect your data, look at your numbers but if it‘s not really driving instruction, so do what differently tomorrow? The instructor that I‘ve got right now coaching is having everybody take a much deeper look at that. So that every quarter we‘re putting our kids on a chart, rather than looking at numbers, we are looking at how many are at the beginning level. Who‘s moved up, who‘s approaching, who‘s meeting, who‘s succeeding and how does that shift go during the year. And when you see, the scores need to be improving, and when we go in first grade that we had eight kids at the beginning and now we got 14 at beginning – that tells us some stuff about instruction. So she is trying to be more specific with them about the small group work. Leveled readers, very specific strategies, that kind of thing. And she is one that can really get in the class and help with what teachers need to do.

[Ms. Novara, Meadows principal] Rather than continually monitoring student progress, Ms. Novara reported that Meadows teachers monitored student progress quarterly through the use of running records. However, the success of such an approach hinges on fidelity of implementing running records and knowing how to interpret and act on the data once it is gathered (Ross, 2004). As will be described subsequently, neither of these skills were well developed amongst the Meadows staff.

Given that Ms. Novara‘s purpose in hiring coaches was to change

classroom instruction, coaching was primarily targeted to struggling teachers. If a teacher was not making the type of progress with students that she should, the coaches and/or specialists were contacted for support. Principal Novara explained how teachers were identified to be in need of coaching.

Serena: How are these two individuals identified as being the ones – is it just based on?

Novara: By observations, the coaches observations, yeah.

Unfortunately the one that got shifted from third grade to fifth grade, kids let me know instantly. When kids are having a hard time in a classroom it‘s not just about them, it‘s about the structure. So, yeah –

Serena: I wasn‘t sure if it was related at all to the student outcomes. If that was a big way that you determine-

Novara: They have to move on it even so much faster than outcomes, when you make changes at the semester. And the other teacher – her scores will blend right in. But I‘ve had a coach say I‘ve worked with her on this and this, literacy and we need to see more of this and this. And with that teacher its interesting – they are both fifth grade teachers – you can hide them a little bit more. A first grade teacher that is not really an expert, it‘s too evident.

[Ms. Novara, Meadows principal]

Rather than using evidence of student learning or lack thereof to determine teacher effectiveness, Ms. Novara relied upon anecdotal accounts of teacher struggle from both coaches and Meadows students. A key indication to Novara that a teacher needed support was if children were ―having a hard time in the classroom.‖ The principal believed it was a teachers‘ responsibility to create and maintain classroom structure – which is a key component of classroom

management. Though Ms. Novara did not explicitly say this, I perceived that she determined the extent to which a teacher struggled based primarily upon

classroom management skill. Also implicit in Ms. Novara‘s statement was the strategic decision to place the least effective teachers in the fifth grade. In this way, aggregate test scores would be less impacted by poor performance in students‘ final year of elementary school. This was due to the calculation of

AYP, as MEAP assessment reflecting fifth grade material would actually factor into the middle school‘s AYP50

as opposed to Meadows.

Given the principal‘s reliance on coaches to identify and support

struggling teachers, I was unsure how closely Novara monitored instruction. In order to gain a sense of her understanding of teacher skill, I asked if there were teachers she was particularly worried about. Principal Novara replied,

I have two right now, ask me at the end of the year. For both of them I will say yes, because they were the kind of teachers that if they didn‘t make a change they go on to our plan three, which if that doesn‘t work then termination is the way to go. So, I see teachers – both of them are – working earnestly to change instruction, working with the coach, then that‘s what I need to see. Will it be everything I‘d like it to be, of course not. But that‘s life. But to see them motivated and making changes and we‘ll just kind of keep at it, keep at it, and keep at it.

[Ms. Novara, Meadows principal] Principal Novara was concerned about the two fifth grade teachers referenced earlier. Novara had one coach work with these teachers intensely to change their instruction. However, she also questioned if it would be ―everything I‘d like it to be‖ and replied ―of course not.‖ Through such statements she suggested that she knew that these struggling teachers would not necessarily be transformed into extraordinary teachers, but seeing signs of teacher motivation was edifying and prevented her for pursuing teacher termination.

Confirming the principal‘s use of coaching resources, I asked a coach51 how she structured her work, and she explained that her efforts were prescribed

50 _{The reader might recall that the MEAP is administered in the fall. Therefore the content of the}

assessment is based upon learning the year prior as opposed to the current grade level. For example, 5th grade students are actually tested on 4th grade material when they take the MEAP in October.

by the principal – she worked with teachers that were ―lower functioning.‖ Here she explained her role.

Serena: So you work with a lot of teachers then when you're doing the coaching in the afternoons.

Coach: Yeah.

Serena: How many people do you see?

Coach: Oh no, it's not...I don't whip around every day. Like right now, I do, I'm going into two classrooms because like it's an hour and a half, hour and a half.

Serena: Oh okay.

Coach: And then I'll rotate but right now I'm working with that new... Serena: Fifth grade teacher?

Coach: And she was new in third grade, so I like followed her up here. So she...I've been with her since the beginning of the year and then like we have grade level release. We have meetings with everybody in the grade level and we talk about literacy. And I run those. So I, you know, I give advice. I run those. I do stuff like that. So I do, I don't like run around to everybody's

classroom...

Serena: I see. How, is it...I mean, are you quote on quote, assigned to work with that teacher? Does she request your help? Coach: Right now, I'm assigned to two of the teachers. Serena: Have they been open to that? Like how...

Coach: Yeah, I mean...I'm assigned to two teachers because they're lower functioning teachers.

[Meadows coach]

While the coach did not define what she meant by ―lower functioning,‖ as insinuated above by Principal Novara, it was likely due to poor classroom

structure, as described by Principal Novara – an important component of classroom management. Indeed, I had the opportunity to observe these two ineffective teachers and both appeared to struggle with structure and management as evidenced by lack of student engagement and difficulty for teachers to capture

51 _{Given the small number of coaches and specialists, I use their job title as opposed to a}

pseudonym in this section to protect their identity. In general, teacher leaders are just referred to as teachers with a pseudonym throughout this document.

student attention (Field Notes, 4/19/10). As the coach recounted below, one teacher worked amidst ―insanity‖ in her room which alluded to a lack of student management.

An important question is the value of this work. When resources such as coaches are distributed primarily to underperforming teachers, it begs the question if this is the most effective strategy for resource allocation. A literacy coach discussed the limited growth she witnessed in a teacher she invested much time,

Coach: I've seen growth. The one teacher has been here a while and I've seen really nice growth. I mean, she‘s been resistant and she's had other people in there. But I see changes. So that's good. I mean, is it gonna start a fire? Is it great? No. But definitely...but from what I hear, and this is only my first year coaching. I did intervention before and then...I've had coaches, so I know how the process goes. And it's when I leave, does it continue? That's the thing.

Serena: That's the question.

Coach: The other teacher, she is...but right now with all of that insanity in her room, it's hard to know. She's trying to make it through every day. And the fact that she's been absent a lot, and she's been having stomach aches. I don't blame her. It's terrible. And I see changes in her, too. And I don't know. I'm a new coach. How much is personality? What can I say? Won't you be like me? You know what I mean? Like that's...although we've talked about it, the coaches...like, I know! Personality, some people just aren't animated. They aren't gonna do that, ever. So what do you do? I don't know.

[Meadows coach] While the coach proposed some development with the two teachers she worked with, she also questioned their effectiveness. In her mind, despite some measure of improvement, coaching poor teachers to great teachers had not occurred under her supervision. This resonates with the principal‘s point about how their

Limited progress exhibited by these teachers is interesting in light of the coach‘s point about personality. She suggested that teaching was an innate capacity – teachers either have the right personality or not. Given this stance on teaching, one could question whether the coach believed struggling teachers could acquire the skills necessary to be effective beyond having the right personality. Though coaching might bolster skills to a point, what remains unclear (and is beyond the scope of this study) is if coaching could turn a struggling teacher into an effective teacher?

Coaches also described tensions with the PLC model. As described in the beginning of this chapter, PLC depends upon teachers taking responsibility for student learning. Chapter six described how Meadows teachers generally attributed limited student of progress to outside factors rather than accepting responsibility for student learning. A coach also described teachers who demonstrated little student growth; the coach suggested such teachers did not make the connection between their instructional strategies and student progress. As explained by one coach,

I had mentioned before in some of the classes where you don't see that growth, I certainly wouldn't say that they're lazy teachers or that they're not trying, it's just what they're doing is not the best strategies, or the best instruction for their particular classroom. And getting them to see that is the hard part. But there's certainly, it's certainly not for a lack of effort.

[Meadows coach]

Through this comment, the coach illustrated her perception that teachers did not understand that their actions as having consequences for student learning. Taking such a stance illustrated teachers‘ inefficacy in their ability to impact student

achievement. For example, if a teacher believed that her actions were

inconsequential to student achievement, then she might not put forth a great deal of effort into planning. The coach illustrated her struggle with bolstering teacher efficacy as she had difficulty getting teachers to make the connection between instruction and student achievement.

Not only were coaches supporting struggling teachers, Principal Novara also engaged other specialists in this effort. The Meadows intervention position was aimed at providing direct service to students that were behind academically (but not necessarily in special education). During a conversation I had with an interventionist, she mentioned that the principal asked her to work with a struggling teacher in mathematics. The interventionist explained,

Serena: Do people know, in this teacher's classroom, she's not making the type of progress that this teacher is making or vice versa? Teacher: Well that's where intervention teachers and especially the

coaches come in because if there is something that's noticed, the principal will have us intervene and kind of step in. Like [coach] is helping out a teacher who is new to fifth grade and helping out another teacher who might be struggling in a certain area. I've been asked to help out a…teacher in math, which has just kind of come up. So we haven't really connected...she teaches math in the afternoon, and I do intervention in the morning. But she has been gone on what's that called, she's on leave, raising her kids, and she just came back this year and isn't familiar with our new math curriculum. So she was pinpointed as kind of having a little bit of

difficulties with the math. So that's where we kind of come in and scoop up and help.

[Meadows intervention teacher]

The intervention teacher illustrated that the principal invested many resources into working with struggling teachers. The intervention teacher ―scooped up‖ to help

teachers is merely another example of triage, where supports were provided to teachers who have less capacity. What is more, Principal Novara made the decision to have her specialist staff working almost exclusively with ineffective teachers. The unbalanced distribution of coaching was further evidenced by a teacher who worked at Meadows for more than 12 years and had never received coaching,

I've never been formally coached - never been formally coached. I've never had a coach in my room. In fact [coach] came in our room this year, "Where are your magnetic letters?" And I would go like this, "I don't have any." "What do you mean you don't have any?" "I don't have any." "Where are your...?" "I don't have any." "You don't have any?" "No." And I'm not a whiner or a complainer, but don't come in my room expecting me to do stuff when you haven't offered me the same as other people.

[Ms. Miller, Meadows teacher] Ms. Miller illustrated that not having access to formal coaching was problematic as she received neither the intellectual nor physical resources to which other teachers had access. Ms. Miller protested unfair expectations, ―don‘t come into my room expecting me to do stuff when you haven‘t offered me the same as other people‖ which illustrated Miller‘s objection to being held to the same standard as teachers who were coached. As depicted here, offering inconsistent coaching support to teachers leads to a difference in teachers‘ efficacy because of the support or lack of support they feel.

An additional challenge faced by the specialist teachers were the split responsibilities due to the structure of their appointments. One individual was both a coach and an intervention teacher, but her attention was divided as she also held administrative responsibilities. She explained her inattention to intervention due to her position as the ―fake vice principal.‖

I honestly have to say the intervention, I have not seen as many kids with intervention this year as I have in the past. One of the other things too, I‘m not the assistant principal even though I‘m in this office. This would be the assistant principal‘s office, through budget constraints and things like that, [principal] has lost the assistant principal. We have over 600 students now. She can‘t do this by herself so I‘m, I call it the fake assistant principal, I take some of those duties. I‘m outside doing lunch, behavior, sometimes I‘ll get a call a particular student is having trouble in a so-and-so‘s classrooms, I‘ll bring a child down here and try to resolve the situation. My day is not just coaching and intervention it‘s also some of those things as well.

[Meadows coach] The resource teacher supported this coach‘s account of having additional

responsibility. She also explained how she wore multiple hats – and how resources for her position continued to diminish. Here she explained her responsibilities,

Well I am a resource teacher. When I first was hired into the building, we had three resource teachers, Title 1, and bilingual. So we were very focused in terms of...my role was focusing in on our LEP, the ELL

population, our new comers, supporting staff in that way, and how to work with those kids, pulling groups. With downsizing over the years, we went from three to two, to now just the one. And now so pretty much it's my responsibility to help K-5. That same thing, plus a lot more has gotten added on over the years…I go in and model a lot of times. Materials - what do I use with these kids? How do I? So I'm also...a big chunk of what I do is ordering the materials for the staff, for our kids, our kindergarteners coming in...they'll be getting different materials. That sort of thing…. I do a lot with scheduling. Their schedules, my own. I help [principal] a lot with building schedules.

[Meadows resource teacher]

As evidenced above, specialist positions were continually cut over the years requiring those who remained in these positions to assume more responsibility. In addition, those in specialist positions had their attention pulled in multiple

directions due to the lack of human capital. An additional challenge with splitting such responsibilities was the different skill set for coaching as compared to

intervention. One might be a successful teacher, or effective in bolstering student progress, but it does not necessitate that she will be an effective coach. Both of the current coaches were successful classroom teachers, but neither discussed their training in coaching or professional development (which does not mean they did not receive training). It is important to recognize that simply having coaching